Take the Halo 4 OST, for example; thousands of dollars went into making it (they even included DVDs in the special edition dedicated to the soundtrack's making), only to be marred by gross unnecessary compression at the final hurdle. It's a such a shame when this is done to otherwise great music.

And here I was thinking that soundtracks were the one place where dynamics might be able to survive as even the worst engineers would realise the need for them.

I can imagine that in a computer game music can be too distracting when it has a lot of dynamics. So, in that case they might choose for a low dynamic range and a low level.

However, it's a shame that they don't release a high dynamic range version on CD.

It's actually the opposite way around in Halo 4 — the in game music has beautiful dynamics, but it was compressed for CD. All the Halo soundtracks CD releases up until now have had 0±1 ㏈ replaygain levels, and they sounded brilliant, but this is the first instalment from a new company (a Microsoft subsidiary, if I recall correctly), so it's a whole new team doing the audio.

I'm secretly hoping that someone will somehow extract the music from the retail game DVD… an unofficial release can only be better than what they have given us!

I have a similar experience with the soundtrack selection that came with the Assassin's Creed Revelations Special Bonus Yay Woohoo Edition. It's still very good music, but it's as if someone intimidating was standing near the person at the equalization buttons, saying:

QUOTE (Hypothetical Sound Engineer)

Boost the highs a little.

A little more.

More.

More.

Keep going.

Yup, more.

More.

There's a lot of variation between tracks, too. For all the competence possessed by the composer and players, producing this CD seemed a haphazard and loveless event.

And here I was thinking that soundtracks were the one place where dynamics might be able to survive as even the worst engineers would realise the need for them.

I can imagine that in a computer game music can be too distracting when it has a lot of dynamics. So, in that case they might choose for a low dynamic range and a low level.

However, it's a shame that they don't release a high dynamic range version on CD.

It is quite the opposite actually. Using the TT DR Offline meters most game soundtracks have DR10-14 dB. Even the noisy 22 Khz ADPCM tracks have that dynamic range. And games using tracked music have even better DRs.

Very strange that the game would have proper music whereas the dedicated release of the soundtrack would be mangled. What was going through their minds there?!

Well, according to allmusic.com the album was mastered by Shawn Joseph. I don't know the guy, but a quick look at his portfolio shows that he normally does mastering for R&B/Pop/Rock/Electronic albums. So, he probably approached the Halo 4 soundtrack in the same way he always works...